Georgia destroys Stalin statue as Soviet relics

GEORGIA

Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili, Associated Press

Published
4:00 am PDT, Sunday, July 11, 2010

In this photo released by Gori region administration a statue of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin is dismantled at his home town of Gori, 80 kms (50 miles) west of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Friday, June 25, 2010. Authorities in Georgia have torn down a monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in his birthplace of Gori to make way for a memorial to the fallen in the Russian-Georgian war of 2008. less

In this photo released by Gori region administration a statue of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin is dismantled at his home town of Gori, 80 kms (50 miles) west of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Friday, June 25, ... more

Photo: AP

Photo: AP

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In this photo released by Gori region administration a statue of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin is dismantled at his home town of Gori, 80 kms (50 miles) west of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Friday, June 25, 2010. Authorities in Georgia have torn down a monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in his birthplace of Gori to make way for a memorial to the fallen in the Russian-Georgian war of 2008. less

In this photo released by Gori region administration a statue of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin is dismantled at his home town of Gori, 80 kms (50 miles) west of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Friday, June 25, ... more

Photo: AP

Georgia destroys Stalin statue as Soviet relics

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Authorities in Georgia tore down another monument to Soviet dictator and native son Josef Stalin last Sunday.

The monument in the town of Tkibuli in western Georgia was taken down two days after authorities tore down a bigger and more famous monument to Stalin in his hometown of Gori.

Both statues were brought down in the middle of the night in an apparent bid to avoid protests and media attention.

Stalin was born to a modest family of cobblers in 1878. Both monuments in his honor were built before his death in 1953.

The Georgian government says a younger generation that has embraced Western ideals of freedom favor the dismantling of Stalin's monuments.

"A memorial to Stalin has no place in the Georgia of the 21st century," President Mikhail Saakashvili said. Saakashvili's government said a memorial to the fallen in the Russian-Georgian war of 2008 will replace Stalin's statue in Gori.

Georgia's Culture Minister Nikolos Rurua said the government will also soon rename Georgian streets still carrying Stalin's name.

But Rurua said the body of Stalin's mother that rests alongside the nation's most prominent figures shouldn't be reburied as some in Georgia have suggested.

"The mother of Stalin carries no responsibility for what her dictator and tyrant son did to people," Rurua said on Imedi television. "Reburying her body isn't a good idea."

Stalin's mother Keke Dzhugashvili, born in 1858 to a peasant family in Gori, died in 1937. She was buried at the Mtatsminda Pantheon, a cemetery in Tbilisi where Georgia's writers and other cultural and public figures were buried.

The Western-leaning Saakashvili began a crackdown on Soviet-era monuments in December when a huge World War II memorial was tore down in Kutaisi, drawing protests from the Georgian opposition and from Russia.

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin laid a cornerstone to a smaller replica of that monument in Moscow in May.